Bobby Hull, 1939-2023

Bobby Hull died Monday.

A player in the World Hockey Association from the circuit's start to its finish, he was the league's first MVP in its first season, scoring 51 goals and making 52 assists. In goals, he did two better in the '73-74 season.

Having been shut out from playing at the first Summit Series two years prior, and famously so, Hull was the first selection for the WHA's delegation, and he scored six goals while in Canada for the first four games. Despite his injured left knee, he was reportedly the one to beat.

"Never been so tight a game before in my life," Hull told Brodie Snyder of the Montreal Gazette after the first game in Quebec City, "not even a 7th game of a Stanley Cup final."

The Golden Jet scored two in that opening contest, and he concluded the Canadian portion with a hat trick against legendary goaltender Vladislav Tretyak in Vancouver.

"I just shot them as they came," he said. "I blasted away."

The first and fourth games were both ties, and the Canadians and Soviets traded wins in between (Canada being victorious in Toronto and the USSR taking the game in Winnipeg).

Moscow, however, was a different story.

Along with three losses in the capital, Canada managed a tie against the USSR, one that would have been a win if not for a Hull goal that was disallowed.

"It went right through Tretiak," Hull said. "I looked up and I thought I saw the light flash."

In the next game, the eighth and final tilt against the Soviets, Hull lit the red lamp a second time in Moscow, and this time it counted.

"We showed those people who said we couldn't play with the Russians that we could," he said of at least the Canadian half of the series. "We outplayed them in three of the four games in Canada, but we were not all together here, for sure."

The Golden Jet didn't spend the entirety of '74-75 as player-coach, unlike the last two seasons, but then again, the Winnipeg Jets failed to make the playoffs that time. Getting the puck in the net 77 times in 78 games is one reason he again won the Gary L. Davidson Award, which by the end of the WHA's time would be renamed the Gordie Howe Trophy after the '73-74 MVP. Only Marc Tardif of the Quebec Nordiques would join Bobby Hull in winning that prize twice.

In the NHL, Hull was also a two-time MVP, being awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy twice back-to-back starting in '64-65. He starred for the Jets in two Avco Cup championship seasons and helped the Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup in 1961, the last time in 52 years.

Stats and other data from Hockey Reference

Gordie Howe, 1928-2016

Gordie Howe died Friday.

In the 1973-74 season, after two years off the ice, the 45-year-old first laced up skates for the Houston Aeros of the WHA, leaving an uneventful job in the Detroit Red Wings' front office to join sons Mark and Marty. His signing in June of '73 no doubt captivated audiences and drew all sorts of reactions.

His wrists might not have been what they used to be, and fears of the comeback being a flop preceded the season, but he was still a very capable player, and it didn't just seem that way because of the league in which he played. His 69 assists in '73-74 were the second-most in the WHA, and his total of 100 points was the third-highest. Led by the Howes, the Aeros won the Avco Cup. Also among Gordie's hardware was the MVP award, which by the end of the league's time bore his name.

Before the next season, Gordie joined the WHA's delegation for a series structured almost like the Summit Series two years before. His wearing of the Canadian red and white, he said, would assure his countrymen that despite over a quarter-century in Detroit and his move to Texas of all places that he was still one of their own. A repeat of '72 wasn't to be, but it gave the Soviet players a chance to play against Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull, two legends who couldn't be present the last time.

With another championship in '74-75, as well as 34 goals and 65 assists, Gordie was once again the right winger for the mythical all-WHA team (as opposed to the one that visited Moscow). His role in the WHA's influence on hockey was no small one, to say nothing of his illustrious career in the NHL.

Hockey: The Early '74-75 Season

EDIT 11/30/2023, 1:48 p.m.: One star player's first name wasn't included on first reference. It's fixed now.

I cannot apologize to myself enough for not being able to post the last two sections in September and October (It's a long story). Good thing there's still time before the end of the year.

This retrospective mainly covers what happened in the '74 calendar year.

After leaving Canada with a win, a loss, and two ties, the Soviet national team defeats the WHA All-Stars in three out of four games in Moscow; the other game is a tie. The team representing Canada, which includes all three Howes, Winnipeg Jets player-coach Bobby Hull, and '72 Summit Series hero Paul Henderson, defeats Finland in Helsinki and Sweden in Gothenburg on the way to Moscow, and they lose to Czechoslovakia in Prague on the way home. Hull scores nine points against the Soviets and Gordie Howe gets seven.

In the NHL, this season is the debut of the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals. With this expansion, the league is realigned into the Wales Conference and the Campbell Conference, each of which has two divisions.

Northlands Coliseum (now Rexall Place) opens, and it will be the home of the WHA's Edmonton Oilers for at least 40 years.

The New England Whalers play games in West Springfield, Massachusetts – where they had played their '74 playoff games – for the season up to and including Jan. 4, 1975. On Jan. 11, they play their first game at the Hartford Civic Center. Except for some time in the late '70s, the Whalers will keep calling Hartford home until 1997.

Ken Dryden is back on the Canadiens. After a year of absence, he has the third-best GAA in the NHL (2.69). He led the league in '72-73 with 2.26.

Speaking of the Canadiens, they begin a streak of 23 road games without a loss Nov. 27.

In the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft, the Buffalo Sabres use their eleventh-round pick on made-up Japanese player Taro Tsujimoto. Among the real players drafted are future Hall of Famers Clark Gillies of the Regina Pats and Bryan Trottier of the Swift Current (now Lethbridge) Broncos, both Islanders selections.

The Toronto Maple Leafs draft the Broncos' Dave "Tiger" Williams, who had 854 penalty minutes in 204 games with Swift Current, but also 108 goals and 133 assists. In '74-75, he has 202 penalty minutes in 39 games with the Oklahoma City Blazers and 187 in 42 games with the Maple Leafs.

With the first pick, the Capitals select Greg Joly of the Pats. The second pick belongs to the Scouts, and they choose Wilf Paiement of the St. Catharines Black Hawks.

The WHA's third season is the first for which plus-minus figures are available.

Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens has his breakout season with 53 goals and 66 assists.

Phil Esposito scores his 500th career goal Dec. 22 at the Boston Garden against the Detroit Red Wings. This is his 803rd career game, and he is the sixth to reach 500.

Esposito and Bobby Orr play what turns out to be their last season together and Orr's last season before his premature decline.

In the opening game of the season for the WHA's Phoenix Roadrunners, rookie Robbie Ftorek scores a hat trick.

Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson both join the Winnipeg Jets after playing in Sweden.

Defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov plays a single game this season that begins a distinguished 15-year run with CSKA Moscow. He and fellow future Hall of Famer Peter Stastny play for their respective countries for the first time (Stastny's is Czechoslovakia) at the European Junior Championship.

Gordie Howe's 99 points bring him to 2,008 combined for NHL and WHA games.

The Minnesota Fighting Saints acquire the players who will be made famous in the 1977 movie Slap Shot. They select Dave Hanson and two of the Carlson brothers (Jack and Steve) in the '74 draft and sign the third Carlson brother, Jeff.

The 1974 Summit Series, as told by a site specializing on it
A narrative of the '74 Summit Series from a '72 Summit Series fan site
The short history of the Scouts from Sports E-Cyclopedia
The official story on Taro Tsujimoto from the Sabres' site
Ulf Nilsson's bio on the Hockey Hall of Fame Web site

COMING SHORTLY: Bill Walton as #1 pick, David Thompson as a college star, and more from the world of basketball in 1974.